5 p.m.

5 years later

It’s been five years since the night Drake walked out of his room leaving me there to cry, it’s been five years since he walked out of my life.

I deserved everything; I deserved being left behind by the person I loved. I screwed everything up. See I was the girl his brother was with a month before whatever happened to us began. His brother wasn’t very different from Drake, both of them had the chocolate brown hair and the piercing blue eyes but there was something in Drake that I never found in Josh, Drake was the one I loved all along.

Drake. His name never left my mind. Josh wasn’t the first of the brothers I had met; I met Drake way before I met him, I met him when I was the vulnerable, innocent, little miss goodie two shoes, Cici.

I still remember how he had fought for me when one of his friends decided to pull a prank on me. Drake along with his brother was always part of the “upper class” at the school’s food chain and I was pretty much at the bottom. I was an easy prey and his friends where mighty predators.

Drake wasn’t one to bully, he was cool and better than the rest that’s why the school looked up to him and Josh was the same. So I guess the day Stacey, the head cheerleader may it be cliché as it sounds bullied me, both of them stood up for me and it made me realize that Drake was a really nice guy, long story short I had a big crush on him.

And this is how everything starts.

I figured if I wanted to be noticed by Drake I had to change, I had to lose the innocent little Cici and become the rebellious girl who drank, partied and smoked her days away, Lacey.

Still Drake didn’t notice me. He was still one of the boys who played around and hooked up with random girls and well I was a beginner at being a rebel or whatever you call it so I decided to do something, and that was the worst plan I could’ve thought of; I used Josh.

It could’ve been obvious but Josh was heartbroken so I guess he didn’t mind either, we hooked up, I started hanging out with their clique, hanging out with the people around Drake just so that he’d notice me but one night while I was with Josh and apparently I couldn’t hold my alcohol as I thought I could, Drake’s name slipped and Josh found out. I owed him an explanation so I told him everything and he couldn’t believe it but he decided not to make such a big deal, the guy was very kind despite his bad boy image, just like his brother. Their clique must’ve gotten used to me being there and they didn’t mind me staying despite of Josh and me breaking it off.

Drake and I, well we started talking and I got what I wanted, we hooked up, but I was broken when he asked me to promise that whatever we’d do, there shouldn’t be any emotions attached. It was a challenge, a risk I was ready to take and so I took it.

And all hell broke loose because a naïve little girl thought she could be a person she never wanted to be.

I changed, I became an addict. I had hurt Drake just to get high. And so he left me.

Five years, it’s been five years since Drake disappeared; it’s been five years since—

“Mum!”

I turned around to see the familiar chocolate brown hair and piercing blue eyes on a little boy calling his mum, calling me.

“Where have you been running off to?” I ask him as I pull him onto my lap.

“Daddy bought me a balloon!” he said while pulling on the string in his hand.

“So where is your Daddy?” I ask him with a smile on my face and he points to the direction where his father was, walking towards us.

“Right here and here’s a balloon for mummy.” He says handing me a pink flower shaped balloon.

“Thank you, Josh.” I say and he chuckles.

“You’re welcome, love.”

--

It’s been five years since Drake died, that night I had found out that he drove straight to a party and got totally wasted, nobody knew why he had the urge to get too wasted until he couldn’t bear it. After they had tried to pry the alcohol away from him, he started to go wild, throwing bottles around and screaming about how girls are deceiving bitches, and I was the only one who knew why he had been that way, it was because of me.

After his outburst Drake stormed out of the party and drove away, Josh and the others tried to stop him seeing he was more wasted than he’d usually be, he was always the responsible one in the group, keeping his alcohol intake at the minimum but I guess what I had done really drove him off the edge.

Josh drove after Drake but couldn’t catch up to him, he was driving 20 over the speed limit. The next thing Josh sees is a truck coming out of nowhere and smashing directly into Drake’s car. His car was totally wrecked and there were no signs of possible endurance.

Drake didn’t survive.

He died because of me and I was so wrecked when I found out, everything was my fault, if I had been honest enough, if I had told him the truth things would’ve been different. I blamed myself for everything.

During the funeral my tears had all dried up but I never stopped blaming myself.

“Cici.” A familiar male voice calls for me and I guess the hand resting on my shoulder was his. I froze. Nobody knew about my past and I made sure to keep it that way. As I turned I saw Josh.

“H-how?”

“Drake knows,” He says with a weak smile. “He’s known all along that you’re Cici. Your personality might’ve changed but your looks, not so much.” He says with a slight chuckle. The tears that I had thought were dried up now started to flow down my cheeks; the silence was comforting as Josh kept rubbing my shoulders in a mild pace.

“S-so that’s w-why I had hurt him so much more.” I say in a whisper, loud enough so that Josh would hear.

“Yea, He’s loved you for so long. He lied about not noticing you. I’ve seen him staring at you a few- wait I mean all the time. He looked at you with such love in his eyes.” The silent crying turned into full on sobs at Josh’s confession. I couldn’t believe what he just said. I was so engrossed in making him notice me that I didn’t even notice that I didn’t need to try. He had loved me even when I was Cici.

“When you and I hooked up he was so jealous. He even threatened me that if I would hurt you, even if I am his brother, he’d punch me square in the face.” I laugh slightly at this, sounds like something Drake would say.

“He also knew that I loved you.” I froze at this confession, it was not Drake’s, this was Josh’s confession.

I looked up at him, his eyes looked straight at the fresh mound of earth covering where Drake was buried. Josh looked down at me and smiled.

“I know your carrying Drake’s baby.”

--

“Drake! Don’t run far away.” Josh calls on to the little boy in front of us.

“Sure thing, daddy!” Drake said laughing; his laugh sounded so much like his father.

“Josh, thanks.”

“You still aren’t gonna stop thanking me are you?” he chuckles and rests an arm on my shoulder, pulling me closer.

Josh took the responsibility of helping me take care of little Drake, he loved the boy like his son. The first time I laid my eyes on the baby I knew I had to call him Drake, the same name as his father and Josh agreed. He proposed the day after and I accepted.

I love Drake, and I won’t stop loving Drake but I guess the purpose of his love in my life was to bring Josh and me together.

"I know you're looking for salvation in the secular age, but girl I'm not your savior."

“You were the reason why I found my savior.”

Fin.

// hi ohgawd i cant. i think i've put much effort on this ending than the first one lol tbh I love this ending better than the other woops hope you enjoyed reading this AE and wait for the other one ((( if i still wanna write it hah ))) lots of lovin xx